Coercion, Capital and European States Ad 990-1992.

• Author: Baldwin, Kate
• Position: Book Review

COERCION, CAPITAL AND EUROPEAN STATES AD 990-1992 Charles Tilly (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1990), 271 pages.

In his significant statement on the origins of the modern European state, Charles Tilly emphasizes the importance of war-making in creating state structures. Although not the first scholar to point out the importance of international relations to state building, Tilly's innovation is recognizing these relations were mediated by different domestic configurations of power, resulting in more than one path of state development. His three-part typology distinguishes between "coercion-intensive," "capital-intensive" and "capitalized-coercion" paths of state building.

By Tilly's account, the initial distribution of cities in a region strongly influenced how rulers mobilized for war and subsequently formed state structures. In rural regions with few cities, state formation was "coercion-intensive," with rulers trying to squeeze resources out of its peasant population, often through alliances with landlords. In regions with numerous cities, rulers had to bargain with powerful commercial classes to obtain resources for war, resulting in a "capital-intensive" path to state development. Finally, in intermediate areas with both urban areas and large agricultural regions...